‘I will not uproot a single Israeli’ settler, Netanyahu says, and Washington Post backs him up

In response to a question about the Jordan Valley at a press conference in Davos on Friday Netanyahu wowed the crowd and made headlines by saying he didn’t intend to evacuate any settlements or uproot even one Israeli. Let’s take a look:

“I do not intend to evacuate any settlements or uproot a single Israeli,” he said.

A flurry of news reports followed. Times of Israel sought out articulation from the PM’s office today to clarify if Netanyahu was referencing the Jordan Valley or the entire West Bank, and if he was speaking short-term or was this his permanent position.

The official was explaining and elaborating on comments made Friday by Netanyahu during a press conference in Davos, Switzerland. “I have said in the past, and I repeat today: I do not intend to remove a single settlement, [and] I do not intend to displace a single Israeli,” Netanyahu said.

How surprising/not. He’s just a chip off the old block, has already said that, and Ira Glunts reported it here in ’09. What’s the chance of Kerry standing him down? Just kidding!

“Today, you will see Mr Kerry going back and forth, discussing nothing but two issues. The two issues have never been in our agenda: the Jewishness of the state and (security in) the Jordan (Valley),” he said.

….Kerry was being forced to hammer out the two issues as other crucial points — such as the borders of a future Palestinian state — were being overlooked.

“They (Israelis) force the agenda on (Kerry); they will not talk about anything else.”

Discussing nothing but these two issues! They let Israel set the agenda–which once again closes the door on a Palestinian state. It’s the old “economic peace” lie, wasting everyone’s time.

And serendipitously, the Washington Post has a fresh article this weekend about the Jordan Valley, complete with photo spread explaining how imperative the valley is to Israel’s security, titled “Jordan Valley emerges as core issue in Middle east peace talks.” Huh– emerges? The Jordan Valley didn’t just emerge as a core issue for Palestine. No, as the breadbasket of the West Bank it’s always been crucial to a Palestinian state. What WAPO meant is that it is emerging as Israel’s new core issue for talks (code: annexing the Jordan Valley).

As the article explains, the demand by Israel, that it remain in the Jordan Valley, is a new demand:

The Israelis are insisting that their troops remain in the Jordan Valley corridor in any future Palestinian entity, and since this demand is new — and was not a core issue in the last serious negotiations in 2000 and 2007 — it represents a real test for the Obama team’s diplomatic ingenuity.

A real diplomatic test? How about saying No, it’s too late to be making new demands? WAPO even squeezes in the 50,000 figure for the number of Palestinians who will be able to stay in the Jordan Valley “under any scenario”– with no mention of the fact that the Palestinian population in 1967, just prior to the Israeli occupation, was 300,000 people!

The complicity in this colonization, the denial of what’s occurring, is astounding. There will be no end to the occupation under this “framework”. And it’s a huge cruel gargantuan waste of time by and for politicos who have proven to be unwilling time and again to just say NO to Israel. Annexation by increment.

And the mainstream press in America is, for the most part, completely silent. More parroting by the Post of Israel’s framing:

“The zone is so pacified that the Israeli Defense Forces have assigned a special brigade of ultra-Orthodox recruits to guard it — devoutly religious soldiers not especially celebrated here for their warrior spirit.”

So the religious will protect, support, and facilitate their marauding settler brethren when they terrorize Palestinians. No problem.

(Thanks to Ira Glunts and Ilene Cohen)

About Annie Robbins

Annie Robbins is Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area. Follow her on Twitter @anniefofani

pamela- i read the whole thing. god bless you, you are truly a beautiful human being!
i don’t know where you get all the emotional energy to keep on going but whatever it is, keep on doing it. you know you have tremendous support.
remember, jesus blesses those who seek the truth.

Look, Abbas already accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC for all crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since July of 2002. Puppets don’t do that. Full Stop. See Declaration of the Palestinian National Authority recognizing the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, executed for the Government of Palestine by Ali Khashan, Minister of Justice, January 21, 2009. link to iccforum.com

See also “Israel demands PA drop war crimes suit at The Hague”
* link to haaretz.com
And the Wikileaks cable where the government of Israel said it considered the ICC complaint from the government of Palestine to be an “act of war”:
* link to wikileaks.org

FYI, ICC member states, like Cyprus and Afghanistan, only get to pay dues. They haven’t gotten the Prosecutor to take any action regarding the on-going illegal situations on their territory either.

In fact, he’s not even King of the Likud Party. See:
Netanyahu cancels first address to Likud since losing party control link to haaretz.com

The powers that be in the Likud party, including Danny Danon, have publicly ridiculed Netanyahu’s comments about the two state solution and recently remarked that anyone in Likud who opposes the annexation of the Jordan Valley is in the wrong political party, because it’s in the platform. See:
*Danon: ‘Jordan Valley Annexation Part of Likud Party Platform’
At Likud party meeting, Dep. Defense Minister says Jordan Valley belongs to Israel, calls on gov’t to oppose US pressure.link to israelnationalnews.com

>> “I do not intend to evacuate any settlements or uproot a single Israeli,” he said”

This, of course, is a lie. Either that or he believes Arab Israelis don’t count as real Israelis. He would like nothing better than to sever a few Arab Israeli communities should some sort of two state “solution” go down.

I’ve been in and out of that article today……..it is astonishing to read the comments by the hasbara brigade (mostly one who must have a tag-team). It’s so insane that it leaves me breathless, and thanking my lucky stars that I was raised with a brain and a heart and humanitarianism.

Booth and Eglash have done a tremendous disservice to the readers of the wapo, not to mention the Palestinian people.

As for Netanyahu’s decree, he makes me retch. He should be condemned by Kerry and Obama for that decree alone. He never wanted peace– he wants it all and the Palestinians gone, by any cruel and sadistic means that he deems necessary.

So idiot Yahoo has opted for one state between Jordan and the Mediterranean. Perhaps he should inform Kerry of his decision, so that Kerry can start negotiations on how a single state can make the transition to a fully functioning democracy with equal rights for all its citizens, equal access to resources, freedom of movement and one civil law for everybody, regardless of their cultures.
IF there had been any real negotiations on a two state solution (ha) then of course it would not be up to the dictator and demagogue Yahoo which squatters stay or go – it would be a negotiated solution, with the end result being that the Palestinian state would decide on what basis the squatters can stay or not. But of course there never have been the slightest pretence of real negotiations, and never will be. How long can Kerry and the US play the humiliated and fobbed-off fool?
Drop the dead donkey, it is now one state, which of course also means that it is currently an apartheid state. Fix it. Equal rights for all.

One prevailing assumption is that there are two options: either a two-state settlement will be reached, or there will be a “shift to a nearly inevitable outcome of the one remaining reality — a state ‘from the sea to the river’,” an outcome posing “an immediate existential threat of the erasure of the identity of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” because of what is termed “the demographic problem,” a future Palestinian majority in the single state.

This particular formulation is by former Israeli Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin, but the basic assumptions are near universal in political commentary and scholarship. They are, however, crucially incomplete. There is a third option, the most realistic one: Israel will carry forward its current policies with full U.S. economic, military, and diplomatic support, sprinkled with some mild phrases of disapproval.

The policies are quite clear. Their roots go back to the 1967 war and they have been pursued with particular dedication since the Oslo Accords of September 1993.

The Accords determined that Gaza and the West Bank are an indivisible territorial entity. Israel and the U.S. moved at once to separate them, which means that any autonomy Palestinians might gain in the West Bank will have no direct access to the outside world.

A second step was to carry forward the creation of a vastly expanded Greater Jerusalem, incorporating it within Israel, as its capital. This is in direct violation of Security Council orders and is a serious blow to any hope for a viable Palestinian entity. A corridor to the east of the new Greater Jerusalem incorporates the settler town of Ma’aleh Adumim, established in the 1970s but built primarily after the Oslo Accords, virtually bisecting the West Bank.

Corridors to the north including other settler towns divide what is to remain under some degree of Palestinian control — “Bantustans,” as they were called by one of the main architects of the policy, Ariel Sharon, in a reference to the territory set aside for black South Africans during the apartheid era.

Meanwhile Israel is incorporating the territory on the Israeli side of the “separation wall” cutting through the West Bank, taking arable land and water resources and Palestinian villages.

Included are the settlement blocs that “will remain part of Israel in any possible future peace agreement,” as stated by Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev as the current negotiations were announced.

[…]Israel has also been clearing the Jordan Valley of Palestinians while establishing Jewish settlements, sinking wells, and otherwise preparing for eventual integration of the region within Israel.

That will complete the isolation of any West Bank Palestinian entity. Meanwhile huge infrastructure projects throughout the West Bank, from which Palestinians are barred, carry forward the integration to Israel, and presumably eventual annexation.

The areas that Israel is taking over will be virtually free of Arabs. There will be no new “demographic problem” or civil rights or anti-apartheid struggle, contrary to what many advocates of Palestinian rights anticipate in a single state.

@justicewillprevail – “it is now one state, which of course also means that it is currently an apartheid state”
A formula that’s used a lot but conflicts somewhat with logic.
Let’s imagine the unimaginable for a moment: that a peaceful separation occurs, Zionists let go of everything outside the green line and Palestinians get to have a rump state with full sovereignty, army, territorial integrity and continuity.
Even then, how the hell is “Israel, the Jewish state” to cease being an Apartheid state? By what kind of miracle?

The real war is being conducted in Galut. Heavy casualties in Holland and slow advances against heavy rearguard action in the states. None of the Zionist parties are ready for what is coming. None of them can stomach telling Yossi and Mrs Israeli the awful truth. YESHA is going to blow up.

Money and accountability, baby. Menscheit comes with accountability . Remember Redgrave. Thugs and hoodlums. Kastner was a kindred spirit with the thugs opposite him at that table. End justifies means they think. They lie to us then lie to the m selves about lying to us.Things fall apart. Accountability is the ultimate mitzvah ….

Its not the death of the peace process that will live on forever. Its a process after all. And i have no doubt that Netanyahu and Kerry will agree on peace. It just wont be with the Palestinians, thew will be offered some kind of take it or leave it statelet like entity that if they are really nice will be allowed to collect garbage

Just one thing for jon and the mehanes and hoph. The WAPO is there beside AIPAC now in the situation room but when TSHTF it will be gone. Same for the grey lady. All that cowboy rhetoric about going it alone is going to matter, finally.

[EXCERPTS] So here comes John Kerry again, for the umpteenth time (but who is counting?) to make peace between us and the Palestinians.
It is a highly laudable effort. Unfortunately, it is based on a false premise. To wit: that the Israeli government wants peace based on the two-state solution.
. . . Unwilling – or unable – to recognize this simple truth, Kerry looks for a way around. . .. . . So here he comes with a new idea: to start by solving Israel’s security problems and doing away with its worries.
Let’s not talk for now about the other “core problems”, he says. Let’s look at your concerns and see how to meet them. I have brought with me an honest-to-goodness combat general with an honest-to-goodness security plan. Have a look at it!This approach is based on the false premise – the offspring of the overall premise – that the “security concerns” cited by our government are genuine. Kerry is expressing the basic American belief that if reasonable people sit around a table and analyze a problem, they will find a solution. . .
. . . The following account is simplified, but not far removed from what actually happened.Immediately after the June 1967 war, when all the Palestinian lands had fallen into Israel’s hands, groups of agricultural experts swarmed over the West Bank to see what could be exploited.
Most of the West Bank consists of stony hills, very picturesque but hardly suited to modern agricultural methods. Every inch of arable land was used by the Palestinian villages, using terraces and other ancient methods. No good for new kibbutzim. Except the Jordan valley.
This valley, part of the huge Syrian-African rift, is flat. Lodged between the river and the central Palestinian mountain ridge, it also has ample water. For the trained eye of a kibbutznik, it was ideal for agricultural machinery. It was also sparsely populated.
Almost all important Israeli leaders at the time had an agricultural background. . . The Minister of Labor, Yigal Allon, was not only a renowned general of the 1948 war but also a leader of the largest kibbutz movement. . .. . . It was Allon who provided the military pretext for keeping possession of the Jordan valley.
He devised a security plan for the post-1967 Israel. Its central plank was the annexation of the valley.
Known as the “Allon Plan”, it had – and still has – a strong hold on Israeli political thinking. It was never officially adopted by the Israeli government. Nor does there exist an authorized map of the plan. But it has been endlessly discussed. . .

And if the illegal Israeli settlers don’t want to become Palestinian citizens and don’t want to get out of Palestine?

The Palestinian state would have the legal right and moral obligation to its citizens to boot the illegal Israeli settlers out and the State of Israel would have a legal obligation and moral duty to assist Palestine without any legal right to take any action against Palestine.

The illegal settlers are the rotting meat in an idiot sandwich of their own and their government’s making

Something about cheap imports undercutting Israeli business, but it is yet another signal that Israel isn’t ever leaving (if only, from this article’s perspective, to level the tax structure the only way they know how…at gunpoint).

But Netanyahu can’t/won’t say that so he says passive-aggressive stuff like what’s in the article.

Well of course he’s emboldened to support illegal settlements so shamelessly when leaders like Harper lavish adulation on the pariah state and condone these illegal activities by not condemning them at all.

For long-time WaPo readers like myself, the decline of the paper morality has been acute, and has led to readers like myself leaving in droves. It was as if the editors paid no attention to the news contained on those news desk pages when making editorial opinions. And for years I have despaired in the belief should Watergate occur again today, the story would be killed by the Weymouths. So there’s no surprise if now it resembles a three page ad laying out the case to annex the Jordan valley, as if it were paid advertising bought by AIPAC. I happily haven’t bought a paper for 7 or 8 years.

If Netanyahu is determined not to evacuate settlements or uproot settlers, then there would appear to be only two possibilities. Either he must be replaced by someone who will or they will be taken away while he stamps his feet and screams.

If Netanyahu is determined not to evacuate settlements or uproot settlers, then there would appear to be only two possibilities. Either he must be replaced by someone who will…

And who might that be? Lieberman?

or they will be taken away while he stamps his feet and screams

Most likely in any negotiated agreement, the bulk of the settlements will be annexed to Israel. Some settlers will be given the option of remaining under Palestinian sovereignty and will leave on their own accord, and some will be forcibly evacuated.

I have just now been listening to Riyad Al-Maliki the Palestinian Foreign Minister interviewed on RT He was coherent and rational and clearly does not believe such decisions are up to Netanyahu. It is understandable that Netanyahu wouldn’t agree, but he is not Israel and the decision anyway is one for the international community. Why else do we support BDS?

“‘I will not uproot a single Israeli’ settler, Netanyahu says, and Washington Post backs him up”

Hitler said he would never abandon the Wolfschanze

link to en.wikipedia.org
“Hitler first arrived at the headquarters on 23 June 1941. In total, he spent more than 800 days at the Wolfsschanze during a 3½-year period until his final departure on 20 November 1944.[1] In the summer of 1944, work began to enlarge and reinforce many of the Wolf’s Lair original buildings, however the work was never completed because of the rapid advance of the Red Army during the Baltic Offensive in autumn 1944. On 25 January 1945, the complex was blown up and abandoned 48 hours before the arrival of Soviet forces.[1]”

When the Soviets arrived at the gates of Berlin he said the German people didn’t deserve him.

Kinda off topic but serious question: Can someone more knowledgeable explain to me what is the legal status of Mahmoud Abbas? I understand everybody still considers him “President of the Palestinian National Authority” but he was not elected to this post and based on what I read from Wikipedia he just acts like he is President since 2009 and no one really cares. Everyone (except Hamas) seems happy to have him as a lifelong president even though he clearly was not democratically elected and therefore – seems to me- any important decisions he makes will be greatly contested by the other Palestinian factions. I wonder, in strictly legal terms would he be considered a dictator?

@phacepalm – “dictator”? Does that strike you as commensurate to that limp rag? He is in that office as appointed by his Zionist overlord, to continue to nod at the pleasure of the Zionist government. Now they need him to parade before Kerry. Tomorrow he’ll go back in the closet, and he’ll know better than opening his trap or even going to the ICC: he knows he is always vulnerable to some mysterious hematologic ailment.

Abbas authority is not based on his presidency of PA, which expired, but on his Presidency of PLO, which has not.

Hostage has wealth of information on this issue:

* The PA is a defunct organ and Oslo has lapsed. It’s up to the PLO to establish the new form of government and a date for any elections. You keep blathering about expired PA terms and elections.
* In the meantime, the PLO Executive, not the defunct PA, has the authority to conduct foreign relations, appoint ambassadors, establish governments in Palestine, and remove them. Abbas is its President. I’ve given you links to the 1988 Declaration on the Establishment of the Provisional Government of Palestine which establishes that beyond any doubt.
* I’ve explained there are no fixed term limits for the posts in the PLO and that the 2003 basic law adopted by the PA legislative council said the source of the PA’s legitimacy was the fact that the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people wherever they exist, and that the PA had been established under the leadership and authority of the PLO.

* The Oslo Accords explicitly prohibited the PA from conducting its own foreign relations and left the PLO in charge in that area.

Settlers are settled in but they will pay a fee,the arabs need security and jobs and israel will have to accept this responsibility.let yarmouk be a warning to the palestinians,they are expendable.
Eu would accept a tax structure that taxes goods from the settlements.that tax would be paid to palestinians,thats the fee.
bds could promote it.companies like sodastream would have to pay taxes to the
palestinian authority or leave.this approach could allow arabs to keep there jobs and let israeli companies grow.

I find rather interesting that writers at MW constantly seem to be surprised by the facts that the NYT or the WP underwrite or support zionist goals both in Israel and at home.
It is well known that both newspapers, among many others, are jewish owned and managed, and if you look at the names of most major journalists writing for them, they are also jewish.
Would it be just as surprising if catholic journalists with names like Monteverdi or Puccini in Rome would support the politic of the Vatican?
It is very difficult to go against ideas that was instalt into one of us from the very beginning of life, a few are able to break the chains, however most will never muster the strenght it takes to do it.

hi theo, could you please articulate which part of the article communicated this alleged “surprise”. could it have been:

serendipitously, the Washington Post has a fresh article this weekend about the Jordan Valley, complete with photo spread explaining how imperative the valley is to Israel’s security, titled “Jordan Valley emerges as core issue in Middle east peace talks.” Huh– emerges?

the whole point of prefacing wapos article w/”serendipitously” including the call out in the title (‘wapo backs up’ ,which i didn’t write btw),is because it was obviously timed. policies and press surrounding those policies are not coincidental. it’s not like the title read: we’re completely shocked/surprised that wapo would just happen to come out w/an article “explaining how imperative the valley is to Israel’s security” now.

frankly, what i find surprising is how you could read these articles time and again that i have written walking the reader step by step thru the complicity of the press, and even lecture them, specifically writing:

A real diplomatic test? How about saying No, it’s too late to be making new demands? WAPO even squeezes in the 50,000 figure for the number of Palestinians who will be able to stay in the Jordan Valley “under any scenario”– with no mention of the fact that the Palestinian population in 1967, just prior to the Israeli occupation, was 300,000 people!

The complicity in this colonization, the denial of what’s occurring, is astounding……And the mainstream press in America is, for the most part, completely silent.

and have any sense, even one iota, we can’t expect this time and again.

i’ve written somewhere around 800 articles for this site. if there’s one thing i am aware of is the complicity of the press. what do you think this is:

How surprising/not. He’s just a chip off the old block, has already said that, and Ira Glunts reported it here in ’09. What’s the chance of Kerry standing him down? Just kidding!

sorry we’re not satisfying your sense of been there done that already. you try doing this day after day after day and making it fresh.

and another thing. did you open my “flurry” embed? try reading the opening again with a dry bored voice in mind. seriously:

In response to a question about the Jordan Valley at a press conference in Davos on Friday Netanyahu wowed the crowd and made headlines by saying he didn’t intend to evacuate any settlements or uproot even one Israeli. Let’s take a look:

“I do not intend to evacuate any settlements or uproot a single Israeli,” he said.

A flurry of news reports followed……..How surprising/not.

what sounds surprised about that? do i sound wowed myself. because i am really really really not. i am FED UP!

Thank you for a really long reply, I am sure I don´t deserve that much attention.

I was not specifically referring to this article, but to the average tone of writings both by the MW stuff and the commentators. Please read the title carefully, to a person less educated than you are it sounds like:
” and the WP backs him up!!!” Really, how dare they, however it may only be my impression? It seems there is another comment on this title.

You have a lot of back patting in this blog, however a good political discussion lives from different views, it becomes boring if they all agree on everything. You can thank the israeli or zionist bloggers, who bring a lot of spice into the discussions, even if they are usually wrong and off their rockers. I personally don´t even count my remark as a critic, only an impression on me. If you write a blog you cannot have a very thin skin, because you will also have critic voiced, as usual in the press business, you should read a few other blogs and the comments they get.

Your reaction is way overdone, if you tell everyone to go someplace else when they voice the slightest critic, then you may end up with very few people who sing the same song in a well organised chorus.

By the way, I did not read most of the articles you quoted, because my time is limited and I participate in several blogs in four different countries!!!
Since for months MW deletes most of my comments, regardless how carefully written, it became to me less important to participate. I read one or two articles, but than move to someplace else where my comments are more appreciated.

Hi people. I am a new member to this site though I have been lurking for quite a while. I just wanted to comment on the ominous tone of the post and the very dark implications for whatever is left of this hapless “peace” process.

To me just the fact that the WaPo article refers to what should be the future Palestinian state as an “entity” is clearly indicative of what the political consensus in zionist establishment circles in regards to the ultimate resolution of the conflict will be like. They’ve dropped any pretense of recognizing what will come out of these negotiations as a viable, contiguous state with real territorial or political sovereignty. Instead, this “entity” will be configured in large measure in accordance to the political, territorial and economic interests of the israeli settlement project, to the detriment of an independent palestinian future. This, coupled with Netanyahu’s assertion that he will not “uproot” a single israeli settlement or settler strips away whatever veneer of legitimacy these negotiations had left until now.

It is clear that this israeli government does not want disengagement, but rather long term control and subjugation. This renders a true 2 state solution effectively dead in the water. Absent any sort of principled, sustained, vigorous pushback from the current PA leadership, little else is bound to change.

This only reaffirms the need for continuing a concerted, sustained, non-violent resistence campaign, BDS included, if the palestinian people are to gain anything near a fair resolution to the conflict, a complete end of the occupation. If not, then the One State solution is all that is left as the way to restore the civil, political and economic rights of Palestinians.

Well I think I might agree with Bibi here since what he’s proposing boils down to a one-state solution. But I do have one little problem with it.

Where are all the Jewish-Supremacists going to flee to when they lose the right to murder Palestinians at will – because I sure as hell don’t want them let into any civilised nation, irrespective of what passport they hold.

Mondoweiss in Your Inbox

There are now two ways to get Mondoweiss delivered directly to your inbox! Sign up for a daily digest of every story we publish or a weekly collection of highlights picked by Mondoweiss staff to stay up to date with our independent coverage of events in Israel/Palestine.

Subscription Options:

Weekly Daily Both

Support Mondoweiss’s independent journalism today

Mondoweiss brings you the news that no one else will. Your tax-deductible donation enables us to deliver information, analysis and voices stifled elsewhere. Please give now to maintain and grow this unique resource.